The Mural in the Attic

In 2014, Carol Clingan was researching yahrzeit (memorial) plaques in western Massachusetts for the JewishGen Memorials & Plaques Project when she heard about a rare synagogue mural in North Adams, Massachusetts, a small city in the Berkshires settled by Lithuanian Jewish immigrants. For more than a century, this wall mural—painted in 1898 by Noah Levin, a Lithuanian Jewish immigrant artist—had been hidden in the attic of a small wooden apartment building, the original home of the House of Israel, the community’s first synagogue.

When the House of Israel constructed this building in the late 19th century, it commissioned Levin to create a synagogue mural like those adorning the interiors of Lithuanian shuls. Over the years, the synagogue moved and merged with other congregations, and the building was converted into an apartment house, yet the mural remained in place. (The Orthodox shul was originally one room, and the mural had hung over the bimah—at the level of the women’s gallery above—so the men could view the mural from their seats below.)

As a genealogist intent on preserving the Jewish legacy in America, Clingan clearly understood the historical significance of the North Adams “mural in the attic.” She soon set out on a mission to rescue this unique relic from the American-Jewish immigrant world—the oldest of the few remaining synagogue murals in North America.

However, this rescue effort entailed a host of logistical and financial challenges: restoring and moving this large mural (approximately 21 feet wide by 5 feet high) from a small second-story attic; finding a suitable permanent home nearby; and raising the estimated half-million dollars required for professional restoration and removal work. The COVID-19 pandemic stopped progress for more than two years. These hurdles, though, were successfully overcome: In 2018, the Yiddish Book Center in nearby Amherst, Massachusetts, recognized that the mural would be a welcome and important addition to its immigrant collection; Clingan raised $450,000 despite no prior fundraising experience; and an experienced project manager assembled a skilled team of professionals who successfully implemented this challenging project.

“The mural will feel right at home at the Yiddish Book Center,” Aaron Lansky, founder and president of the Yiddish Book Center, wrote to the Mural in the Attic Rescue Committee that Clingan chairs, “where it will be viewed by and enjoyed by visitors from around the world.”

Susan Bronson, executive director of the Yiddish Book Center, told me: “This mural represents a beautiful and unique moment in history. We felt that the Yiddish Book Center was an important home for this relic of a Yiddish-speaking, immigrant Jewish community, which found a home not far from where the Yiddish Book Center is now located.”

This month, the North Adams mural relocated permanently to the Yiddish Book Center, where it occupies a place of honor above the front entryway. A dedication ceremony is scheduled for this winter. “The greatest gratification for me,” said Clingan,” was to rescue a rare piece of our Jewish heritage and have it displayed in a place where 10,000 people a year can see it.”

Today a lost art, ceiling and wall murals were commonplace in Central and Eastern European wooden shuls before the Nazis destroyed these synagogues, although some murals with Jewish themes still remain in such places as Illintsi, Chernovitsi, Lviv, and Novoselytsia in Ukraine.

In North America, besides North Adams, other remaining synagogue murals are in: Burlington, Vermont; Boston; Chelsea, Massachusetts; Providence; Manhattan’s Lower East Side; Montreal; and Toronto. Murals also remain at two Black churches that were formerly synagogues: the Green Pastures Baptist Church in the Bronx (Chevra Linas Hazedek), and the First Church of God in Christ (Tifereth B’nai Jacob) in Minneapolis.

Each of these North American murals is different, but the North Adams wall painting is one of a kind. It uniquely incorporates traditional Jewish symbols with American patriotic images, reflecting the immigrants’ dual embrace of Jewish tradition and their new home in America, explained Samuel Gruber, an art historian who has been documenting the synagogue art of East European immigrant congregations. (He is also president of the International Survey of Jewish Monuments, an educational organization dedicated to the documentation, study, care, and conservation of historic Jewish sites throughout the world.) “The North Adams mural perfectly expresses the sensibilities of this small Jewish community in an industrial American town. Though not educated or trained in art or aesthetics, the mural is a heartfelt expression of their loyalties to Judaism and America.”

For example, in the mural’s center, are the Ten Commandments flanked by two lions (representing the Jewish people) waving American flags, with images of a Magen David, hands denoting the priestly blessing, and a Torah crown. Capped on top is an American eagle, a symbol of freedom and liberty as reflected in the Bible, e.g., God’s liberation of the Jews from Egypt (Exodus 19:4) and His protection in the desert (Deuteronomy 32:11).

On one side of the mural is the Hebrew phrase “Da Lifnei Mi Atah Omed” (“Know Before Whom You Stand”) that often adorns Torah arks—and which derives from a Talmudic passage on how to merit life in the world to come (Berakhot 28b). On the opposite side is the response: “Lifnei melech, melech malchei hamelachim” (“Before the Ruler of Rulers”), a phrase included in the Aleinu prayer recited at the conclusion of Jewish worship services, as well as in Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) 3:1 and 4:22.

Rescuing the North Adams mural was no easy feat, emphasized the project manager, Judith Cannon: “Most of the team members did not know each other but they all understood the importance of this mural. They all worked together well to cooperatively develop the best plan and methodology for this unique project.”

The project team—composed of professionals responsible for restoration, engineering, construction, removal, transportation, and installation— met virtually for several months to develop project plans and define processes.

Because the mural was located in the attic of an occupied apartment building, it was necessary to ensure that its rescue would not impact the building’s structure. That required structural engineering expertise to evaluate the building and develop design specifications so the floor could support the 1,800-pound mural when it was removed. Using these specifications, a building contractor then reinforced the floor to accommodate the weight.

Significant custom work was necessary: The mural was painted directly on an interior plaster-on-lath wall (narrow strips of wood nailed to the wall studs and covered with plaster), which required special care to carefully cut it from the wall and prevent the plaster from crumbling and damaging the mural. It was also necessary to remove the wall behind the mural to give the painting conservators full access to repair the back of the mural. Because the large mural could not fit through the small attic window, the project team recommended extracting the front portion of a second-story window when it was time to remove the mural from the building.

In September, Gianfranco Pocobene, a paintings conservator whose firm conserves and restores paintings and murals, together with his colleague, Corrine Long, completed the mural restoration project in three weeks despite numerous challenges, including the difficulty of working in tight, restrictive attic quarters. For example, they frequently worked on their knees because there was no room to stand without hitting their heads.

Special considerations were necessary to conserve the mural because it was painted directly on the plaster-and-wood-lath wall. The first step was to stabilize the paint and loose plaster on both front and back by applying adhesive including where a large puncture existed directly behind the image of the eagle. It was also necessary to reattach the plaster and minimize existing cracks on the mural, some up to 1/4-inch wide. In places where chunks of plaster had fallen out, the restoration team needed to build up the plaster level with the original so the damage would not be apparent, executing it much the same as done originally, using a veneer plaster. To secure the structure both in front and back, the restorers injected PVA adhesive into the spaces between the wood lath plaster, selectively injecting grout on the reverse side where large gaps existed.

After stabilizing the plaster and paint, it was necessary to remove the thick layer of soot and grime that had accumulated on the mural’s surface for more than a century. Because the original mural artist had used chalk and watercolor materials, it was not possible to use a water-based solution—otherwise the pigments would easily dissolve and wash away. Instead, dry cleaning was performed, using soft sponges that removed the grime without damaging the surface. “One of the tricky aspects of our work is cleaning as thoroughly as possible without damaging the work,” emphasized Pocobene.

The restoration team also restored missing colors and design elements to their original appearance. In touching up the paint, the goal was to be faithful to the mural artist who had used chalk and watercolors, using similar materials to mimic the original. For example, when the ceiling above the mural had been repainted years before, the upper surface of the mural representing the sky was overpainted with a beige-colored paint that obliterated the sky. After the restorers removed the beige overpaint with water-dampened cotton swabs, they replicated the blue and yellow sky with watercolors and artist’s chalk, and the missing part of the eagle was similarly reconstructed. Finally, a thin, synthetic fixative was sprayed onto the surface of the mural to secure the pigments and protect the paint layers from future dust.

“We’ve worked on many murals over the years, but conserving this very eclectic mural in the attic was a first for us and we’re thrilled to have participated in such a challenging and exciting project,” said Pocobene.

Once artistic restoration was complete, the mural was cut from the wall and removed from the attic. “It was necessary to balance the fragility of the mural with the rigors of removing it from the facility. The biggest challenge was to cut through the wall safely without damaging the mural,” explained Jed Cleary, president of Func Art Design, which specializes in the full-service transportation and installation of sculptures and precious artifacts.

Func Art Design performed the fine cutting of the mural from the wall, also fabricating a cradle with multiple layers of material to protect the mural during removal and transport. After the mural was removed from the wall, it was placed in the cradle and onto a raised dolly cart secured to a pallet. On Oct. 30, a crane lowered the mural, hoisting it onto a temperature-controlled box truck for transport to Func Art Design’s facility in Kinderhook, New York, where a custom-designed steel frame was welded to support the mural at the Yiddish Book Center where it hangs 10 feet by 12 feet from the ceiling. “This is one of the most historic challenges we have ever had,” said Cleary.

While the mural rescue was complex and expensive, it preserves the artistic legacy of Eastern European Jews and an important relic of American Jewish immigrant history. “Preserving heritage should unquestionably be high on the list,” said Shalom Sabar, professor emeritus, Jewish art and folklore, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “Historically, for the Jewish people, very few monuments from the past have survived due to the many upheavals throughout Jewish history.”